


Baby Brother of the BAU

by tinyginger



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Angst, Autistic Spencer Reid, BAU family, Bisexual JJ, Bisexual Spencer Reid, Family Fluff, Fluff, Insecure Spencer Reid, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Protective BAU, Sad and Happy, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:27:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22170274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinyginger/pseuds/tinyginger
Summary: Spencer Reid joins the BAU. Everyone decides to adopt him as their baby brother.
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner & Spencer Reid, Derek Morgan & Spencer Reid, Jason Gideon & Spencer Reid, Jennifer "JJ" Jareau & Spencer Reid, Penelope Garcia & Derek Morgan, Penelope Garcia & Jennifer "JJ" Jareau, Penelope Garcia & Spencer Reid, Spencer Reid & The BAU Team
Comments: 28
Kudos: 550





	Baby Brother of the BAU

“They are not going to take me seriously.” Spencer stressed as he paced back and forth in Gideon’s office. “I’m too young, too skinny, and too awkward. I will never be part of the team. They won’t accept me!”

“Spencer, calm down.” Gideon spoke calmly. “Sure you’re young, but you’re a helluva lot smarter than most agents two times your age. This is no different than you graduating when you were twelve, or having a doctorate even though you’re only twenty-two.”

“That’s the problem!” Spencer snapped, fear apparent in his voice. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to yell.”

Gideon waved him off, “It’s fine. Tell me what the problem is.”

“I uh… I don’t want to- I don’t want to be bullied again.” Spencer whispered. “I have been bullied my whole life. In highschool I thought it would be better in my senior year, in my senior year I hoped it’d be different in college, in college I assumed it’d be different in the academy… I have been wrong about this more times than I care to admit and I’ve gotten my hopes up everytime… I can’t- I won’t do it again.”

“Spencer…”

There was a knock on the door and JJ walked in. She smiled at Gideon and Reid and walked over to the young man. 

“JJ, this is Doctor Spencer Ried, he’s going to be joining the team.” Gideon said. “Reid, this is Agent Jennifer Jareau, she is going to be showing you around and getting you started.”

“Hi.” JJ greeted, holding her hand out to Spencer. “You can call me JJ if you’d like.”

Spencer shook her had much to Gideon’s surprise. “Hi JJ, it’s nice to meet you.”

“Come with me, I’ll show you to your desk and then I’ll show you around.” JJ told him. “The team isn’t coming in today so I’ll get you set up with all the logins and we’ll get you set up with a badge. After that I’ll walk you through a normal day at the BAU, not that we get many of those… Oh and we’ll get you a locker. Feel free to ask me anything at anytime, my door is always open and if I’m not in my office you can call me on my cell. Even if you don’t think I’ll have the answer I can usually point you in the direction of someone who can help.”

“So you’re pretty much the boss around here without the title.” Spencer attempted at joke. 

JJ smiled and nodded, “You’re the first one smart enough to catch that.”

“Told you he’s smart.” Gideon said proudly.

“I like him.” JJ told the older agent, then looked to Spencer, “Come on, we’ll get you set up at your desk first.” 

Spencer followed her to his desk and smiled at the sticky note that read “Welcome!” and had a smiley face on it. He picked it up and stuck it to the short wall of his cubicle. Whoever wrote it didn’t know how much their small act of kindness made his whole outlook on joining the BAU so much better. 

“Do you know who left that?” Spencer spoke quietly. 

“Garcia.” JJ chuckled, “I’ll introduce you to her before lunch, we’ll take you to our favorite spot.”

“You want me to have lunch with you?” Spencer’s voice hitched in the middle of his sentence. 

JJ nodded, “Yeah, Garcia and I usually eat lunch together, and when the rest of the team is here we usually send someone to go pick up food or we order it, we all stopped packing lunches a while ago. The other units were complaining about all the spoiled food in the fridge.”

“We eat lunch together?” Spencer questioned. “Everyone?”

JJ nodded, “Most of the time.”

“And they, the rest of the team, will be okay with me joining?” 

“Of course.” JJ chuckled and touched his arm, “You’re part of the team now Spencer.”

JJ sat with him while they set up his logins and walked him through how to use the FBI database. Once they were done with that, she took him to the locker room and found him a vacant locker. He had already memorized the number, but JJ found the role of gaffer tape and the sharpie that were kept in a locker with no door on it and wrote his name on a strip of tape. When she stuck it on the locker, Spencer saw the careful lettering and smiley face doodled on it and he smiled. 

“Thank you.” His whispered. 

JJ smiled, “Let’s go meet Garcia.” 

Spencer followed JJ down the hall. He listened as she explained how the team works and how Garcia fits into it. She also explained that she was a bit “eccentric”. 

JJ knocked on the door and called out for the tech analyst. 

“Enter beautiful girl, the enchantress is in!” A voice answered from inside the room.

He followed JJ into the room and widened his eyes at the colorful decorations and nicknacks littered around the room. 

“I like your Dalek.” Spencer said when he saw the Doctor Who figurines on her shelf. 

“And I like you.” Garcia smiled sweetly. “Penelope Garcia ‘s the name and hacking ’s the game.”

“I’m Spencer… Reid.” 

“He’s a doctor.” JJ told her. “And the newest member of the team.”

“Welcome to the team Doctor Reid.” Garcia said. 

“You left the note on my desk.” 

Garcia nodded, “Jayje told me that’s where the new guy was going to be sitting, thought I’d write you a note.”

“Thank you.” Spencer smiled and avoided making eye contact with both the girls. “It means a lot… you don’t know how much I needed that.”

“Awe, honey, I’m always here to brighten your day.” Garcia smiled. “You are always welcome in my cave.”

“Let’s go to lunch.” JJ suggested. “I told Spencer we’d take him to Sam’s.”

“Sam’s?” Spencer questioned, not recalling a place called “Sam’s” anywhere near to the office. 

“He’s the owner.” JJ told him. “He always gives us free food.”

“The restaurant isn’t actually called “Sam’s”, we just can’t remember the name of it.” Garcia chuckled. “Let me just grab my purse and we can head.”

JJ turned to Spencer, “Do you need to grab anything before we go?”

He looked down at the messenger bag slung around his shoulder and shook his head, “Nope, I’m good.”

The three made their way to Gideon’s office and JJ knocked on the door, “Would you like to go to lunch?”

“Nah, I’ve got a lecture.” Gideon said. “Take care of Reid.”

“Don’t worry, I think Garcia already claimed him as her own.” JJ chuckled. 

The three of them walked to Sam’s. Spencer walked between the two girls, his hands in his pockets. Garcia had slipped her hand into the crook of his arm, which at first had startled the young man, but it was surprisingly comforting and reminded him of when he would take walks with his mother and she would hold his arm as she told him stories and explained the world. 

Once they were sitting and eating, Spencer rattled off some fact about taste buds and had both women staring at him in disbelief. 

“Where did Gideon find you?” JJ chuckled. 

“I attended a few of his lectures.” Spencer smiled. “I always ask too many questions so I wait until after class to talk to the speaker, and Gideon was the only one who answered all of my questions. He also gave me his number so I could ask him more questions when I thought of them. I did… a lot actually, and he- one day he called me and told me I was going to be taking the course to be a Profiler, he also said he’d take me on as my training agent, I was fast tracked in the program… I’m not-I’m not actually sure that is allowed, I mean it was approved, but I don’t know- please don’t think I was put on the team because Gideon pulled strings, I am working hard, I just learn faster than most of my peers, that why I graduated highschool at twelve, I just… uh… I was his student. That’s how Gideon found me.” 

JJ and Garcia could see the blush on his face. He was embarrassed. So much so he looked like he was fighting tears. 

“Well, I for one, am glad you were fast tracked.” JJ encouraged him to look away from his hands. “It’s going to be nice to have a buddy in the field.”

At that Spencer looked up, shock covering his face, “Buddy?”

“Yeah, Gideon and Hotch usually pair off together, Morgan goes with the local, and I go wherever they tell me, now I’ll have you.” 

The corners of Reid’s lips turned up slightly as he nodded and whispered “buddy” to himself. 

“So you’re a genius?” Garcia asked. 

“I don’t think measuring intelligence is always accurate, but I do have an IQ of 178, with eidetic memory, and I read 20,000 words per minute.” Spencer gave a tight lipped smile. “So, uh… yes?”

“And you’re a doctor.” JJ added. 

Garcia clapped excitedly, “What kind of doctor?”

“I have three PhDs… Engineering, Mathematics and Chemistry, as well as bachelor’s degrees in Sociology and Psychology and I”m thinking about a third in Philosophy…”

“You make nerdy sexy.” Garcia chuckled then gasped and grabbed JJ’s hand. “Speaking of sexy, you didn’t tell me you worked with tall, dark and muscley.” 

“Morgan?” JJ asked. “Yeah, he’s on our team, I thought you knew?”

“I’ve only ever worked with you, Agent Hotchner, and Gideon.” Garcia shrugged.

“Is he nice, ‘tall, dark and muscley’?” Spencer asked. 

JJ nodded, “I think so.” 

“You think so?” Garcia questioned. 

“Look, when I go out in the field with them, I’m usually with Hotch or Gideon.” JJ sighed, “but, now that I have Spencer that’s going to change.”

Spencer smiled, “Because we’re buddies.”

After lunch, JJ took Spencer to get him his building badge. JJ fixed his hair and made sure his tie was straight, then sent him to get his picture taken. 

“Felt like picture day at school right?” JJ chuckled. 

“Yeah, but less stressful.” Spencer agreed. “And at least I’ll look halfway decent in unlike my school photos.”

“I’m sure you looked adorable.”

Spencer shook his head, “My hair was always a mess, my tie was never straight, and I usually had a blackeye.”

“Black eye?” 

“I was at least six years younger than all my peers… bullying was a daily occurrence.” Spencer shrugged. “Thank you for making sure I didn’t look stupid.”

“No problem.” JJ said. “That’s what friends are for.”

Spencer mouthed the words “friends” as he followed her back to the office. 

The rest of the afternoon, JJ talked Spencer through what a day without a case looked like. Spence took notes as she explained their paperwork load, how to finish the paper and how to file it. He asked questions and stopped asking questions when he realized he probably asked too many… like always. 

“I’m sorry.” Spencer whispered. 

JJ furrowed her brow, he had been quietly looking over his notes while JJ planned on what they still needed to go over. She hadn’t heard him say anything or seen him do anything so the apology was a surprise. 

“Why?”

“I asked too many questions.” Spencer said. “I’m working on it.”

“On not asking questions?”

“Not asking too many.” Spencer told her. “I don’t realize I’ve gone too far until it’s too late.” 

“You didn’t ask too many questions. I am happy to answer anything you need, and you can always ask me anything.” JJ tried to reassure him. “I usually have the answer or can find one.”

Spence looked to her, his lips pressed in a thin line, “Okay.” 

The next day was Spencer's official first day. He showed up early and went to JJ’s office first. She wasn’t there yet so he set the coffee on her desk, and went to Garcia’s lair. He knocked first and went in when there was no answer. He set the coffee he bought for her and set it on her desk, then found a pen and grabbed a sticky note, writing “good morning” on it and adding a smiley face. 

Reid found himself alone in the bullpen, he sighed knowing he was too eager this morning and left his apartment too soon. A hopeful glance to Gideon’s office confirmed he was completely alone. He sat down at his desk with a sigh, his coffee was already almost gone and he didn’t want to break anything in the office before he met the rest of the team, so he resigned himself to finishing the rest of his coffee slowly and reading his book while he waited. 

“Oh, you’re here early.” Hotchner startled Reid when he walked in an hour later. 

“Uh, yea-Yes.” Spencer stammered as he stood. “Sorry, I was a bit eager, I guess.” 

“No, it’s refreshing to not be the first person in the office for once.” Hotch chuckled. “I’m Aaron Hotchner, you must be Dr. Reid.”

“Yes, it’s nice to officially meet you.” Reid smiled. “Gideon has told me a lot about you.” 

“Mostly good I hope.”

“Very good!” Spencer nodded excitedly. “From what Gideon has told me and what I’ve read about your team, you are a major reason this team runs so smoothly and you have such a good record so far. Another reason being JJ, and the work ethic of your members.”

“I look forward to working with you.” Hotch told the young man and he reached to shake his hand. Spencer hesitate slightly before taking his hand and giving the firmest shake he could. 

‘You want someone to respect you? It’s all in the handshake. A firm grasp and a strong shake.’ His father grabbed his small hand tight and tugged his arm up and down. ‘Just like that.’ 

“The team should be here soon, I can get you some files if you’d like to start working now.” Hotch offered. 

Spencer nodded and followed his boss to his office. It was a nice office, pictures of his wife placed around the room, pictures of the both of them as well, they were smiling and looking at each other with all the love in the world. He loves his wife, a family man. His achievements and awards framed but not put in obvious places, he's proud of what he’s done but doesn’t care to brag to others, he rather brag about his wife.

“Please, have a seat.” Hotch said. “I’ll go over what I’m looking for when it comes to the paperwork.”

When Hotch asked the young man if he had any questions, Spencer shook his head. “I’m sure I can figure the rest out.” 

“Alright, it will probably take a while to get used to the way this team works. If you have any issues, questions or concerns you can come to me.” Hotch said. “You can also go Gideon or JJ.”

“Thank you.” Spencer said. “I do have one question actually.”

Hotch looked at the young man and nodded, encouraging him to ask. “Go ahead.”

“My age… is it-will it affect anything?” Reid stumbled through his question. “I mean, will-will the team be okay with it? And the rest of the FBI? Gideon told me not to worry about it, but-but he is also the one who set it up for me.”

“It’s not going to be an issue.” Hotch replied. “And it was me who fast tracked your paperwork.”

“You did?”

“You had everything you needed to work for the FBI, you passed every test in half the time it takes most kadets, aside from your physical eval you got perfect scores on everything. You passed the tests we set up for BAU recruits in record time, and I watched your interview with Gideon and was impressed.” Hotch told the kid. “Your multiple degrees in versatile topics was also impressive. I felt it would be a waste to wait a few years to hire you.”

“Thank you.” Spencer smiled. “I won’t let you down.”

Hotch nodded and watched as the young man walked out of his office.

Spencer sat down at his desk and started to go over the files his new boss gave to him. He read through the file first, then on his second time through he started to make notes. By the time he had gone through half the stack, JJ had walked into her office and found the coffee Sencer left for her. 

“Good morning!” Garcia greeted as she walked into JJ’s office. “You got a coffee too?”

“He’s sweet.” JJ said. 

“I got a sticky note with mine.” Garcia giggled. “He’s adorable. Imma keep ‘im.”

JJ agreed, “You want to get dinner tonight?”

“Of course! Did you cancel on… Mark?”

“Mike, and yes. I found out he has a wife… and a girlfriend.” JJ sighed. 

Garcia rolled her eyes and groaned, “Men.”

“Yeah, I think I’m done with them for a while.” JJ said as she gathered some files. “Think I’m going to focus on work for a while.”

“And the ladies.” Garcia wiggled her eyebrows. “Come on, let’s go to a bar tonight and get you a lady. Please!” 

JJ rolled her eyes, “I’ll think about it.”

“Jayje, you need a woman! I need you to have a woman.” Garcia pleaded. “You’re too hot to be with a trash man.” 

“Go to you lair crazy.” JJ chuckled as she walked out the door. 

JJ walked into the bullpen just as Morgan did. She smiled at him and walked over to him. 

“Who’s the kid?” Morgan asked. 

“Morgan, allow me to introduce you to the newest member of the team…” JJ said walking Morgan over to Spencer’s desk, and gently touching his shoulder to get his attention. “Spencer, this is Derek Morgan, Morgan this Dr. Spencer Reid.”

“Doctor?” Morgan questioned. 

“I have three PhDs.” Spencer replied with a nod. “It’s nice to meet you.” 

“Yeah, you too.” Morgan nodded slowly, offering his hand to Spencer. Spencer took it, his whole body tense as he did so. “Today is your first day?” 

“I uh, I came in yesterday to get everything ready.” Spencer said. “JJ got me all set up and- uh, yeah… it’s my first day.”

“Welcome to the team.” Morgan said with a smile.

“Goodmorning,” Gideon greeted. “Reid, my office.” 

Reid nodded and followed his mentor to his office. “Sir?”

“You okay?” Gideon asked. 

“Yeah, how are you?” Spencer asked. 

“Just fine. Did you bring a go bag?” 

“Yes sir. JJ told me what to pack.” Spencer smiled, “I got everything.” 

“Good, and you’re feeling about the BAU?” 

“Yes, I’m sorry about freaking out yesterday.” Spencer looked down at his hands. “Sometimes my anxiety gets the best of me.” 

“That’s alright, it happens to the best of us.” 

Spencer was about to say something else but was interpreted by Hotch knocking on Gideon’s door to announce, “We’ve got a case.” 

“Come on kid,” Gideon said as he dumped the files he had been holding on his desk. “Nothin’ like jumping in with both feet.”

“Do I need anything?”

Gideon looked him over, “Nope, you’ll be fine.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
